PROJECT PROFILE
University of Texas at
Austin
137-MW CHP & District Energy System
Quick Facts
LOCATION: Austin, Texas
MARKET SECTOR: College/University
FACILITY SIZE: 17 million sq. ft.
CAPACITY: CHP –137 MW; Steam – 1,282,000
lbs/hr; Chilled Water – 48,000 Tons; Thermal
Energy Storage (TES) – 39,000 Ton-hours
EQUIPMENT: General Electric LM2500+ G4 DLE
Combustion Turbine; Vogt HRSG; Three Vogt
Boilers; Babcock & Wilcox Boiler; Two
UT Austin has achieved significant fuel and emission savings
through its District Energy & CHP plant.
Westinghouse Steam Turbines; One General
Electric Steam Turbine and One Siemens Delaval
Steam Turbine
FUEL: Primary – N. Gas, Secondary – Waste
Site Description
Heat
The University of Texas at Austin’s (UT Austin) Carl J. Eckhardt
Heating and Power Complex provides a campus of 50,000
students and 20,000 faculty and staff with efficient heating,
cooling and electricity. UT Austin, one of the largest public
universities in the U.S., has added 5 million square feet of
building space over the past 15 years and has grown from 9
million square feet of building space to 17 million square feet
since 1977. The university’s highly efficient District Energy & CHP
plant has doubled the amount of power it produces to keep up
with this campus growth yet the plant uses the same amount of
USE OF THERMAL ENERGY: Space Heating and
Cooling, Process Steam, Boiler feedwater and
condensate Preheat, Domestic Hot Water,
turbine inlet air cooling, chilled water thermal
storage tank
CHP PLANT EFFICIENCY: 88%
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS: 91,267 tons of CO2 per
year
NOTE: UT Austin has achieved carbon-neutral growth
through major energy efficiency improvements.
fuel today as it did in 1977. The campus achieved carbon-neutral
growth through efficiency gains as a result of $150 million of energy efficiency and capacity upgrades. UT Austin earned
the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star award in 2005 in recognition of these achievements & Global Climate
Award from the International Energy Agency in 2009.
Reasons for District Energy & CHP
With a total budget of over $2 billion, UT Austin’s mission-critical campus research operations require highly reliable
energy. The campus District Energy & CHP plant supplies enough energy to meet 100 percent of the heating, cooling and
power demands of 160 campus buildings and 17 million square feet of space and has achieved 99.9998% reliability over
the past 40 years.
District Energy & CHP Equipment & Operation
UT Austin’s highly efficient campus District Energy & CHP plant
uses a combustion turbine, steam turbines and boilers burning
natural gas to produce steam and electricity. The plant also
runs a Heat Recovery Steam Generator to optimize total
efficiency. 70% of the electricity produced is consumed by the
campus while the other 30% is used to make chilled water. Four
chilled water plants distribute 140 million ton-hours of water
chilled to 39 degrees F through 6 miles of piping to provide
cooling to the campus. A 4 million gallon TES tank provides an
additional 39,000 ton-hours of chilled water capacity. Overall,
the system operates at 88% efficiency.
Environmental Benefits
UT Austin’s Utilities and Energy Management department continuously
works to conserve energy and increase overall efficiency. Ten years of
utility improvement projects and investments in efficiency improvements
have saved $170 million worth of energy and allowed the university to
achieve carbon-neutral campus growth. Overall, utility projects to
address campus growth and fuel needs have reduced campus CO2
emissions by 91,627 tons per year.
These major plant improvements, along with the use of proven
technology such as digital controls, plant optimization software and
plant and distribution system “real time” modeling, have resulted in
significant fuel savings and emissions reductions. UT Austin’s energy
plant has the same fuel consumption and emissions levels as it did in
1977.
Recent notable projects include modifications and upgrades to the
plant’s steam boilers that reduced NOx emissions by more than 80%,
improved efficiency by 5-10% and reduced horsepower consumption by
more than 75%. Additionally, a comprehensive university Demand Side
Energy Management and Conservation (DSEMC) project included $1.2
million to replace or repair 420 steam traps and radiator valves and
install removable pipe blanket insulation in over 700 places on campus.
UT Austin’s District Energy & CHP Plant.
These improvements will save the university $235,000 annually (a
simple payback of 5.1 years) and prevent 5.8 million pounds of CO2 emissions from the 25 million pounds per year of
steam energy saved.
For More Information
International District Energy
Association
University of Texas at Austin
Rob Thornton
Executive Director of Utilities and
President
508-366-9339
www.districtenergy.org
Juan Ontiveros
Energy Management
512-471-6241
www.utexas.edu/utilities
Date Produced: 2012